Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Simon Leigh

Never A Still Moment

 

Simon Leigh is an Australian born writer and activist living in Canada. He suggests he was educated way beyond his intelligence at Sydney University, Oxford and The University of New Brunswick. He collected degrees in ‘this and that’ at Sydney University, Oxford (on scholarship) and The University of New Brunswick. His list of theses includes ‘Unconscious Motivation’; ‘Concept-Formation in Schizophrenia’, and ‘The Willing Victim: Character and Technique in the work of Jean Rhys’. He is now retired but  taught University and College English for more than twenty years.

My poems and stories have appeared in  Grain, The Bulletin (Australia); Equinox; The Fiddlehead; Mainline; Orphic Lute; Quarry; Ski Australia; Poetry Australia; Scarp: New Arts and Writing (Australia); The Grist Mill; the Antigonish Review; Parchment: Contemporary Canadian Jewish Writing; The Review of Contemporary Poetry; Gold Dust 2007 Calendar; Rhyme and Reason: Modern Formal Poetry; Sage of Consciousness, Sorrowland Press; Island Dreams (2005) and the anthology These Loved These Hated Lands.       

 

His improbable memoir Wild Women (UKA Press, 2005/7), set in Fredericton, has been praised by Paul Quarrington as, “A well-written, witty, ribald and rollicking journey into the dark ways of men and women,” in the U.K. by Miles Kington, and in the U.S.A. by PODGIRL who wrote, “Leigh is a master of voice and this novel should be required reading in creative writing classes.”

He writes, “I’m now 30,000 words into Death in Venice II, the sequel to Wild Women. If you can guess the 6 (there’s only 6) lies in Wild Women you can win YOUR NAME in its sequel.”

Among his many other accomplishments he has been a reader for the Writers Union of Canada's Short Prose competition. Strongly preferring to avoid monotonous work, he has been gainfully employed as an advertising researcher, psychologist, consultant, racing driver and instructor, university and college professor, labourer, professional actor and modern dancer, fourth trumpet in a big dance band—and, the whole time, he was a writer.

Simon was the 1st Place winner for Fiction in the Winter 2007 issue of Big Pond Rumour, The Zine. We thank him for serving as our Fiction Judge for the Summer 2007 issue.

Offer your response to Simon Leigh.

 

 

 

 

Tell him you saw this page at Big Pond Rumour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tadeus Rosewicz at Festival Hall

 

The little Polish poet

stands telling us of

children going down

down

in the dark

the bales of cut hair

                                       But Daddy

I've been good

Many of us are crying

I'm worried if too many

cry someone may get

angry

and start shooting

 

 

 

 

The Trouble with Canada

 

A tolerant society

Even tolerates

Intolerance

Which soon becomes intolerable.

 

 

 

 

Cellphone Hell

 

You volunteers for cellphone hell

believe this small device will free you

to nap in the pub where the Boss can’t see you

snapping to attention at the sound of the bell.

 

But those ads deceive. Your crafty plan

means at lunchtime, over coffee you’re still at work!

Even home in your bathtub you’ll obediently jerk

to attention, stand dripping, obeying the Man.

 

So instead of expanding your hours of leisure

you’re now at the office every night and day,

You’ve given your privacy away

and your ring tone haunts every former pleasure.

 

The Triumph of Words over Music

 

Once upon a more skilful time

Lived poets who spoke in fluent rhyme

(And later there were quite a few

Who could write words and music too)

But soon the more impatient bard

Found rhyme and rhythm far too hard

So, as his thoughts grew vague or worse

He generated half-rhymed verse

To three guitar chords: total crap

But white kids bought his gangsta rap.

So drop the melody, sample drums

And something dreadlocked this way comes

That makes the oldies clench in rage

As loud complaining hits the stage.

 

 

 

 

A Cure For Religion

 

There must be a cure for religion

Though I really don’t know what it is.

I pray to my God for an answer

But He says it’s my problem, not His.

A member since March 2007.

 

All text © Simon Leigh

All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced without written permission from Simon Leigh.

Forthcoming:

 

Death in Venice II. (novel; a sequel to Wild Women)

 

 

Books:

 

Short Strokes. (poetry, 2006)

 

Wild Women. (2005, novel) UKA Press. United Kingdom.

 

Metamorphosis II. (2005) RS Publishing, Newcastle, Australia.

 

The Bleeding Clock. (Fiddlehead Press, Canada)

 

Dying Flowers. (Fiddlehead Press, Canada)

 

 

 

 

Find Wild Women here on Amazon.com

or here on BestBookPrice (U.K.)